Canada Divided – Post Election – Time to Renew the Bargain and Focus on Priorities – Hard.

Or I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so… and Home Equity tax?!?!

The narrow Liberal come from behind victory in the face of strong voices calling for change from a lost decade was followed by the almost immediate declaration that Canada is in recession and Western frustration boiling over into talk of separation. The resulting electoral map presents a stark divide between a mostly blue west as well as suburban and rural areas in the centre, in contrast to a red east coast with red urban bastions in downtown Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The far north remains reddish orange largely a result of being beholden to federal subsidy while its resources lay locked in the ground. The Bloc remains steady as the voice of Quebec separatism even while fissures appear to be growing between it and the provincial governing party, the Parti Quebecois, over pipelines. Overall, Canada is in a tense situation, with separatist movements now to the East and West because Confederation has become polarized due to an overbearing central government and Laurentian mentality that refused to see a changing world and remember that Confederation was an economic bargain between semi-autonomous provinces not a unitary state.

In the West, frustration is largely over restrictions on resource extraction, carbon taxes, lack of pipelines, unequal transfer payments and culture but it is also about how decision-making power has come to be allocated in Confederation. Quebec’s sense of independence and grievance is well known, even if its historical legitimacy is a bit murky. However, it is not just the West or Quebec that is talking about leaving. Much quieter, but much more imminent, is the exit of many of Canada’s productive class, who have been keeping their lawyers and accountants busy preparing for the possibility of continuation of Trudeau era tax and spend policies. And it is not just them but their children, many of whom they have already sent abroad for better opportunities. Put bluntly, if Canada does not hang out the “Open for Business” sign immediately, put a break on taxes, restore law and order, and cut back on wealth redistribution and ideological interference, that great sucking sound you hear will be the productive class heading for the exits, and with it your pensions and your children’s future. This is the part of this essay where I get to say that I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so because one of the key underlying differences in our new two party system is not just disparity between diverse regions in Canada’s economic bargain but also the economic and cultural disparity between the people who produce wealth and those who benefit from re-distribution of wealth and that presents a critical and complicated problem. A problem that will need to be solved through compromise and hard decisions that prioritize economic development over social ideologies, if Canadians are to continue to cohabit in harmony in the bargain that is Canada.

This is a core problem because, as explored in the last few essays, Canada is not a unitary state but rather an economic bargain among semi-autonomous provinces and diverse peoples created largely in defence against American takeover. These essays argued that historic respect for the ability of regions and individuals to pursue their own economic well-being without central interference was critical to maintaining the fabric of Canada but is now in jeopardy. The only collective certainty in 1867 was the Railway and yet today pipelines cannot be built even though government interferes increasingly in social issues once reserved to individual choice. These essays have argued that the current divisions among regions, demographic cohorts, and individuals largely pre-dated President Trump and were primarily the result of the federal government increasingly using its taxation powers to inefficiently redistribute wealth between regions and peoples, while at the same time intruding into how that wealth was generated in the first place and how people lived their lives and that this needs a reboot.

How people lived their lives raises the important point that the economic bargain had been buttressed over time by some deliberate unifying nation building efforts and cultural compromises that have been eviscerated in the last decade. It was tragically ironic to see people who had cancelled Canada Day, renamed buildings, and tore down statues just a year ago, brandishing beavers, donning hockey jerseys, and putting their elbows up in the face of threats of annexation as if the only unifying characteristic of Canadians in addition to hockey, Tim Hortons and Mr. Dressup, was that they were not Americans and the only problems facing Canada were external. In reality, what had historically existed as unifying cultural forces for Canada as a nation - John A. MacDonald’s Canadian Pacific Railway, the victory at Vimy Ridge, the “Two Solitudes” bargain between French Catholicism and British Protestantism, and attachment to the Crown and Peace, Order and Good Government had been damaged by demonizing the past through “settler-colonial” misinformation, post-national rhetoric, uncontrolled immigration without assimilation, identity politics, and moral decay.

Even the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, have lost their potency as unifying forces as activist courts increasingly come into conflict with democratically elected governments and the common sense of the taxpayer. The resulting rise of the use of the notwithstanding clause is called a travesty by some and essential by others but the travesty people are clearly wrong. Section 33 was not only deliberately inserted into the Constitution Act but without it the Constitution would not have been adopted at all. It is historical fact that the parties around the kitchen table were not prepared to completely abandon regional parliamentary supremacy to unelected judges appointed by the central government. A prudent decision it would appear, given one Toronto judge’s recent ridiculous declaration that bike lanes could be a charter right up there with security of the person, even while nothing is being done to preserve the actual security of the person of Jewish Canadians who are constantly harassed by violent mobs or homeowners who are told to leave their keys at the front door to avoid being assaulted during a car theft, or indigenous women who are regularly preyed upon.

In sum, economic differences and cultural differences have converged in the form of tension between urban progressivism / globalism versus rural conservatism and between the increasing beneficiaries of wealth redistribution and the decreasing producers of wealth. After years of increasing taxes, reduced services, decreasing productivity, being told that they were deplorables, and hearing bike lanes are a Charter right while mobs roam the street and thousands die of Fentanyl, is it any wonder that many Canadians have lost faith in the bargain that is Canada?

It is truly sad that it took the threat of President Trump to temporarily unite Canada through fear but that unity has been short-lived as shown by the events of the last two weeks. For Canada to survive on its own merits – not just as an anti-American reaction, the bargain that is Canada needs to be renewed with a focus on compromise that lets regions and individuals not only strive to be their most productive but also accept responsibility for themselves and truly contribute to the national bargain which is Canada. On the economic front, big, bold national projects such as pipelines and utility corridors are necessary to channel the nation building power of the transcontinental railway. Government will need to slash regulatory friction and taxes to unleash the private sector to build pipelines, transmission lines and houses. Transfer payments will need to be completely re-examined so that productive Peter is paying less for pusillanimous Paul. On the cultural front, Canadians need to be reminded of the great achievements of the CPR, and of Vimy, and how Canada truly was different from our southern neighbours, while still respecting the timeless enlightenment values of individual integrity, industry, thrift and self-reliance. Not all values are the same and identity politics and post-nationalism have robbed Canada of the founding values inherited from the British enlightenment that are essential to hold Canada together. Virtue signalling and political correctness will need to give way to mutual respect built upon the proof of an individual’s contributions and actions rather than the colour of their skin or what grievance group they identify with. In a renewed Canada, contribution needs to replace entitlement as our north star. Diversity and Inclusion will need to give way to Drive and Industry. Below I set out ten critical steps to build Canada, which focuses on renewing the original confederation bargain for the modern age through prioritizing the economy while retreating from social engineering.

Before that discussion however, it must be said that Prime Minister Carney has initially managed the tense situation admirably by calling Premiers Smith and Moe immediately and organizing a conference with the Premiers in Saskatoon on June 2. The fact that it is not in Ottawa but almost in the geographical center east-west of the Country should be noted. Winnipeg might have been better geographically but Saskatoon is almost there and has the added benefit of the Prime Minister going to the more moderate of the two early movers of Western separation rather than summoning the Premiers to Ottawa. Similarly, the Prime Minister went to Washington and while barely getting a word in edgewise, did succeed in not being “Zelenskied,” while pulling off a witty real estate analogy claiming that the “owners” of Canada were not putting it up for sale. While the President did say “never say never” in response, it was the Prime Minister’s use of the word “owners” that has come in for much comment given his predecessor’s post-colonial rhetoric. Importantly, not only does “owners” send a signal to President Trump, but it also stands in stark contrast to the RCMP doing two land acknowledgements before updating on two lost children in Nova Scotia. The RCMP and the rest of the public service need a memo telling them that there is a new Sheriff in town and substance is once again to be privileged over political correctness. It is also notable that Prime Minister Carney has promised an income tax cut and a cut to interprovincial trade barriers by Canada Day, which are excellent objectives in and of themselves but also presumably means that we can be proud of Canada again. These are not small things because if this change in posture continues than it may demonstrate that Prime Minister Carney truly understands that he has much mending of fences to do, economically and culturally, if Canada is stay together as a nation. Let us hope however, that these were not Freudian slips.

And that is critical. The Prime Minister will need to stick with the philosophical conversion he appeared to have had during the election by adopting much of the Conservative platform rather than backtracking to the utopian manifesto contained within Value(s). If he backtracks and a bait and switch is revealed, many Blue Liberals, Red Torys, and Boomers who voted for the comfortable Liberal candidate with the Conservative Platform may have significant buyer’s remorse. More importantly, failure to implement a reversal of the lost decade and broken bargain and campaign promises will send Canadians in larger numbers for the exits. Kick off meetings and announcements are one thing; execution and results are another. With a cabinet likely stacked with retreads from the previous administration and a public service with Stockholm Syndrome, both addicted to repeated announceables than were never executed, such as ending boil water advisories on reserves that never happened, the proof of Prime Minister Carney’s pudding will indeed be in the eating. Change was called for and change must be delivered.

But the milk has been spilled and the water is under the bridge, so what do we do now?

The overwhelming necessity is to hold Prime Minister Carney to his campaign promises and not to allow bait and switch reversals of carbon and capital gains taxes, infrastructure and energy investment or action against crime. The Liberals largely appropriated the Conservative platform and that has become the platform upon which they were elected. To resile from it now, would not only make wide swathes of the Canadian electorate angry but it would further damage the already tarnished and fragile faith in our democratic institutions. Democracy is not a winner takes all and do what they want proposition; it is implementation of the will of the people. Accordingly, there are ten priority actions that must be taken to hold Canada together.

First, Canadians must resist more “elbows up” movements between Alberta and Saskatchewan and the Rest of Canada. They have valid concerns – address them. Brandishing beavers and grown-up adults wearing hockey sweaters while not on skates doesn’t change the debt, deficit and transfer payment numbers no matter how the vibes make you feel. Continuing to argue that central Canada donated the TMX to Alberta must end because that is simply false. Ottawa’s own regulatory burden torpedoed that project and many others, and as a result of this own goal, Ottawa was forced to bail TMX out from taxpayers’ coffers largely filled by taxpayers in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Further attempts to deny these or any province from reaching their economic potential by the imposition of laws from the centre will be fatal to a nation that was founded on an economic bargain. Prime Minister Carney’s call to Premiers Smith and Moe was a good first step, and going to Saskatoon, if it is a true council of confederation, will be even better to demonstrate commitment to a truly national approach that respects regional interests and to enlist these essential partners. In the military we were taught that there is no “I” in “Team,” let’s all remember that sage advice.

Why is this the first priority, and not negotiating a trade deal with the United States? Because national unity is essential to entering into those negotiations from a position of strength. Only by harnessing the complete power of the Canadian economy and having agreement from the regions will such a negotiation succeed in preventing further damage to the Canadian economy and sovereignty. Like it or not, Alberta and Saskatchewan’s energy, agriculture and potash reserves are the starting wingers on our powerplay and they have to be in the game. Quebec’s dairy, aluminum and electricity industries put it on the blueline alongside Ontario’s auto and financial sectors and electricity supply, while Canada’s coastal Provinces with their own abundant resources anchor the penalty kill. Even a Harvard backup goalie needs a team ahead of him, particularly when he has the urge will be to play both goal and center.

Second, we must acknowledge that the United States does not really want to absorb Canada but that does not mean that the United States, China, Russia, and other actors do not want a divided Canada so as to keep our resources in the ground and out of international markets until they want them. American ambitions to absorb Canada did not begin with Trump, beginning as they did in 1776 and continuing until the Second World War under FDR but it has been conclusively determined to be almost impossible to do because of the impact that the absorption of a multicultural democrat heavy people, with a French speaking population, would have on the US seats in congress and America’s assimilationist philosophy. Even President Trump’s most boisterous supporters do not support the idea of absorbing Canada. In addition, President Trump has repeatedly said that he likes Prime Minister Carney and elbows up were converted to joint fist pumps at the White House for what that is worth. It’s the art of the deal and annexation is just not going to happen. Numerous books have been written on this, in particular Richard Maass’s The Picky Eagle – read them.

It was not so much ado about nothing but rather much to do about something that most Canadians missed, egged on by the Liberal fear campaign and sound bite media. Boomer Trump Derangement Syndrome amongst Canadians was and remains dangerous because it distracted voters from the real critical issues of national lack of productivity, national dependence on the United States, national polarization, and real foreign interference from the People’s Republic of China and other foreign actors. Having now won, and with Trump apparently mollified, Prime Minister Carney will now have to deal with the real threats to Canada.

The greatest threats are of our own making based on the many insisting the few pay for things the few do not want but those threats will be dealt with below. With respect to foreign interference, unlike the US, the Chinese government operates police stations in Canada, pulls international students off the street, openly threatens Chinese-Canadian Conservative Candidates, and have kidnapped family members. Chinese shell companies have been actively acquiring mineral and other assets in Canada, as in many nations in the west, and, together with the Russians have been sowing disinformation and division. The opportunity to amass wealth in China’s economy has led to the compromise of numerous bankers, consultants, and businesspeople who are now beholden to the Chinese government creating a veritable Chinese Fifth Column within Canada. To that add fentanyl imports, which have been openly described as revenge for the Opium Wars and you have a real actionable threat not a former reality star taking pokes at Governor Trudeau for foolishly admitting Canada’s economy could not survive. And the Chinese are not alone. Indian diaspora groups are in open conflict. Islamist groups, acting as proxies for China, or funded by Qatar, which has significant motivation to keep Canada’s oil and gas in the ground, have taken advantage of identity politics, post-nationalism, and western settler-colonial guilt to rampage unchecked through city streets, eroding Canadian faith in the police, the judiciary, and their governments. All of which keeps Canadians divided and distracted and ripe for the plucking.

This is not to say the US is our best friend forever but just not in the way many Canadians were led to believe. For years, US actors from both the right and the left have been instrumental in funding environmentalist groups in Canada to impede Canadian resource production. Ironically, for those on the right, Canada is seen as a strategic reserve, best left to be exploited when Americans are ready. Due to technological change and Chinese competition, the American military has stepped up investments in the Canadian critical minerals sector and is particularly fond of Canadian aluminum but they are happy to invest and buy rather than occupy. Now the dark side of this type of analysis is that Americans when asked do indicate that they would welcome a secessionist Alberta and Saskatchewan in a second, particularly under President Trump. Now that does present an existential problem and much pundit prose have been spilled on the unruly constitutional framework for separation while largely ignoring the power of self-determination and ironically, their own rhetoric about President Trump’s willingness to take unilateral action or simply “recognise” the new independent states. And for those armchair warriors ready to scramble the F-18’s from Cold Lake and the Strathcona’s and PPCLI from Wainwright if either of those provinces sought to self-determine and shelter behind the Americans think again. The United States Navy’s private army, aka the Marines, could likely do the job unassisted in that very very unlikely event.

So, the chicken littles need to give their head a shake and see the situation for what it is. The pragmatic and clear-eyed response to all of this bluster is to provide the United States all the benefits of a productive and trusted trade and defence partner without all of the nuisance of dealing with our diverse population. This is done by keeping Alberta and Saskatchewan in the fold by unleashing their ability to prosper. At the same time, all Canadians need to fully understand as a first principle, that economic and security dependence in our international life, as in our national life, is weakness that will be exploited by others or, as is a central theme of his essay, resented by our productive class, who then cut off the freeloaders or cut and run. Diversification of markets and self-defence are no longer negotiable but necessary for Canada to survive. Money talks, sanctimony walks.

Third, Canadians must acknowledge that the ability of Americans, Chinese, Russians or any other foreign actors to divide us is made easier by the polarizing policies of our own governments, institutions, and influencers. Canadians are divided along regional, linguistic, rural and urban and age lines like never before. Multiculturalism, an unquestionable aspect of Canadian governance since Pierre Trudeau, has created a fractured nation, where various migrant communities self-police and fight among themselves rather than assimilate into a free market western society. The alleged Indian state sponsored assassination is only a recent incident among many, where immigrants have not left their troubles at home and embraced western tolerance.

To this of course can be added the rampaging Islamist movements terrorizing Canada’s Jewish population and by extension much of the rest of Canada’s population. Let us be clear, there was never a Palestinian state before Israel. That part of the world has been occupied by many peoples for various periods, including the historical kingdom of Judea. The defeat of the Ottoman empire in the First World War left Britain and France with the responsibility of sorting out parts of that empire, including the creation of several Muslim kingdoms in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The Palestinian mandate was a geographical not a political description, where it was intended that repatriated Jews fleeing European persecution and other peoples, including Muslims and Christians would coexist. Unfortunately, Jewish settlers felt constrained and Arab Islamists refused to accept a Jewish presence at all and after several wars, the United Nations recognized the state of Israel in 1948. Despite several more wars and almost constant threat of invasion, Israelis have built a modern inclusive democracy and leading-edge technology economy whereas the non-Israeli controlled sectors on the same land have remained backward theocracies intent on Jewish destruction. It says much that while Israel can co-exist with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, none of those countries want anything to do with the Palestinians. Whereas many Muslims have fully and productively integrated into Canadian society and commerce, there remains a growing radical Islamist movement that has brought their evil fanaticism to Canada as they have in Europe. Failure of the Canadian and provincial governments to differentiate between peaceful free speech and mob violence has turned our streets and campuses into war zones, further distancing Canada’s rural populations, which maintain Canada’s founding confederal values, from urban populations, which are increasingly globalist or valueless. Many Canadians look at what is happening in France and Britain and say No.

Prime Minister Carney’s government will need to restore order to restore faith in the democratic institutions of government. One of the principal obligations of government regardless of whether you are follower of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, or Jean-Jacques Rousseau is to maintain peace and order. While it is true that policing is carried out at the municipal and provincial levels, when the crimes in question become terrorism offences they become the responsibility of the federal government. Moreover, it is the federal government that creates the criminal law and appoints Superior Court Judges. Prime Minister Carney’s government will need to reverse the catch and release bail system, prosecute those participating in the Palestine protest movements and Chinese influence campaigns, and remind police forces and judges that their job is to remove those who breach the peace from society, not give land acknowledgements or deliver Timbits and coffee to protesters of any kind. A great deal of this problem stems from police and governments making politically correct value choices about what protests they will suppress rather than treat all protests the same. Protestors of any skin colour must be treated the same – harshly - once they have become disruptive. Have your say now be on your way.

In addition to dealing with the most blatant disintegration of society, Prime Minister Carney will have to address his predecessor’s destruction of the historical social bonds that held Canada together. Canada Day must return to being a day of celebration not apology. Let the people learn about John A. MacDonald, gin and all, but not lose sight that but for him there would be no Canada. On indigenous matters, again let the actual history not a mythology of people living in Arcadian bliss be taught. Where treaties were broken, renew the bargain and free Indigenous people from a system that impoverishes many but lines the pockets of lawyers, consultants and Chiefs. Indigenous people stand to gain much as partners in the resource harvesting of Canada, and they were traders and entrepreneurs long before the Hudson’s Bay or Northwest Company voyageurs began to visit them. We need to confront the fact that conquest happened, and that it would have happened regardless, it was only a matter of by who to whom, as evidenced by the Mohawk extermination of the Wyandot people. Europeans did not bring violence to North America; they bent that which existed to their own purpose. Moreover, General Cornwallis did not learn his trade in Halifax but in the Highlands of Scotland; we need to stop victimizing the then normal state of nature where violence existed everywhere.

While Liberals may have garnered most of their votes in the urban centers of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, the Canadian economy that feeds those cities, is fueled by the roughnecks, lumberjacks, farmers, fishers, mill wrights and miners spread across the true north strong and free and their culture is different. This is not to discount the high-tech, auto or financial sectors clustered in the south but rather to drive home the fact that our economy is primarily tied to those who need their F-150’s to start at 50 below and EV’s don’t do that. As Democrat strategist, James Carville famously said, “it is the economy, stupid.” Accordingly, Prime Minister Carney’s government must focus on the economy and stop spending money on social engineering because one size of values does not fit all. Environmental issues will be dealt with below but Diversity and Inclusion needs to give way to Drive and Industry. It is what you do, not who you are that matters. To that end, governments need to stop imposing urban values on a largely rural nation and only spend taxpayers’ money on things that benefit all taxpayers. Most people are largely unconcerned with whom one person loves or lives with; let that be our guide rather than fixate on pronouns and let society decide when it is ready for yet another gender or sexual preference. These are private not public matters. Let the schools teach math, science, history, and language again and leave parenting to parents.

As an example of the urban - rural divide, the pundits in the last two weeks have obsessed about Conservative party backstabbing (which frankly was pretty stupid) but for the most part have missed that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s loss of his own seat may be a microcosm of the national divide as his loss appears largely due to changes in riding boundaries that converted a mostly rural riding into a predominately suburban one with new large townhouse subdivisions where Free Palestine signs were as numerous as electoral signs, and public servants outnumbered private sector workers. Putting aside whether his riding association should have known about the changes and adapted, the gerrymandering of the riding (by independent commission or not) exposed the stark difference in values between rural private sector Canadians and urban public sector Canadians. The former want to be left alone to build their lives without government intrusion, the latter want government involvement to change other people’s lives and Poilievre’s former constituents had an entirely different value system foisted upon them. To put it bluntly, imposition of urban or globalist values on a largely rural nation will only lead to further division and separation. The cities need illegal gun violence to end because of crime but farmers don’t need their deer guns confiscated to appease urban voters, who could not tell an assault rife which has been illegal for years in Canada and a .22 varmint rifle with a fancy plastic stock. If you are on well water, the last thing you want is to be subsidizing other people’s town water.

The bottom line is that Canadians must openly acknowledge that Canada is a settler-colonial state but also acknowledge and proclaim that that is not a bad thing. Yes, land was taken and people died but that my friends was how the world worked and continues to work. More important is that unlike many colonial projects such as Brazil, Mexico, the Western United States, and the Islamic sweep into North Africa, the Canadian expansion was relatively peaceful and orderly and founded upon individual industry, thrift, and investment. Canada was, and can be again, a great nation and exemplar of industry and tolerance but that means prioritizing those values and shunning dependency and intolerance. Critically, if you want Canadians to stick it out together, then you need to provide them with a raison d’etre. Canada needs the CPR, Vimy, and the Crown to provide us with a national unity story shared by all Canadians (even newcomers). Canada was cancelling Canada Day in 2023 until President Trump got everyone into a hockey sweater and elbows up. Time for some contrition from the post-nationalists and educational institutions need to dust off the pre-post-Marxist curriculums and teach real economics and history again. Prime Minister Carney has invited King Charles III to read the throne speech. This is a good thing despite protests from the Bloc Quebecois and others who have forgotten or never learned Canada’s history. Not only will it send a signal south but more importantly it will send a signal north.

Canadians need to come together and embrace the things about Canada that most can agree on such as the CPR and Vimy and form an identity of a Northern economic bargain that does not rely upon defining itself by not being American. At the same time, in a new Canada, diversity must mean that people are entitled to have a personal progressive ideology but that they don’t force it upon others. And most critically, in a nation with debt and deficit and threats to our sovereignty, progressives must stop requiring everyone to pay for their ideological preferences. You be you but you pay for it and that is as true for regions who want to be more generous with social benefits than others as it is between individuals. Again, judges should not order a province to have bike lanes any more than they should order the Ontario Hospital Insurance system to pay so that a transexual can have both a penis and a vagina. Made up rights cannot trump the taxpayer’s willingness to pay. The workers in the lunchroom in Fort Mac will think you have lost your mind, and they would be right.

Fourth, Prime Minister Carney must keep his promise to make Canada an energy superpower. OPEC has now announced a monthly oil production increase of 411,000 barrels a day starting in June. We have seen this story before; every time Canada and the United States talk about increasing production or transportation, the Russians and the Saudi’s flood the market to make fracking and pipelines unprofitable. Once the projects are shelved, OPEC (which for those who don’t know, is a Cartel devoted to keeping oil prices high) will restrict production and drive prices up. This will put the United States in a bind as it largely defends places like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to keep China from becoming their best friend. For Canada, this engineered price drop will worsen the already cautious investment in Canadian oil and gas production. Worse however, this temporary and well-known tactic could possibly lead to the Liberal Government backing away from commitments to build pipelines, particularly if Prime Minister Carney uses the moment as an excuse to push his net 0 green agenda. Canadians can’t afford another Liberal Prime Minister deciding that there is no business case for Canadian oil and gas while South Korea, Japan, Greece, and Germany are pounding on our door with the Russian wolf at theirs.

It is not that Green energy projects are not good ideas in theory and some in practice. The fact is however, that many analysts and academics have determined that there will not be so much a green transition as there will be a green addition. Emerging technologies such as AI and emerging economies in other parts of the world will demand even more power and conventional green sources simply cannot replace fossil fuels if supply is to meet demand. Another part of the problem is that Canada, with the exception of Maritime offshore, does not have the right wind or enough sun to generate stable loads of that type of energy. Even where such projects exist, there is insufficient transmission capacity, particularly because wind and solar fluctuate widely, meaning other sources of power such as Nuclear and hydro in Ontario have to be kept offline. Hydrogen is still behind in development and Nuclear, while necessary, faces many of the same societal hurtles of oil and gas. To compound matters, the component parts of many of these new technologies are most often foreign sourced and the environmental damage from unsafe extraction methods to build the infrastructure simply offshores our carbon damage to people who cannot object. There is a reason China is ahead of the rest of the world in green energy production, albeit while still increasing coal fired production, they don’t care much about who gets hurt in the process.

Even water generated hydro presents a challenge because it does not exist significantly in the Prairies, and Ontario and Quebec have fallen behind in both building generating capacity and more importantly, building transmission capacity to markets. This is why we need a national energy corridor just as we needed the CPR. We need both hydro and oil and gas moving across the nation efficiently and effectively, rather than the default of north-south. Moreover, not all energy is created equal and agriculture is particularly dependent upon fossil fuels to make fertilizer and to power machinery. Widely respected academic Vaclav Smil from the University of Manitoba has written extensively on the realities of global energy transformation and climate change and even though he himself is a devoted environmentalist, he demonstrates why many of the current green beliefs, including the Prime Minister’s former beliefs set out in Value(s), are not only not realistic but also exaggerated., and that their implementation would lead to mass starvation. Do not believe me - read him.

The bottom line is that Canada can be an energy superpower and tapping Canada’s competitive advantage in all aspects of energy production will make Canada more productive domestically, including harnessing the power of AI, and a more useful ally to the United States and Europe. The opposite risk is that if Canada doesn’t harvest its resources another nation will do it without asking permission. And obviously, forcing some Canadian provinces to restrict their energy opportunities while importing dirty oil from Russia and the Middle East is a recipe for separation. Canada’s sovereignty, not just its prosperity, rests on harnessing its energy competitive advantage.

Fifth, we must acknowledge the deep divisions between those who produce and those who benefit from redistribution in Canada and educate our population as to how global and national economies really work because it is not apparent that many do. Our economy depends on the private sector to generate wealth and without a private sector, the enormous public sector and social safety net is in danger. The private sector has become precariously dependent upon the United States as almost its only trading partner, partly because of the natural north-south economic flow of the continent and the attraction of the world’s largest economy and partly through the failure to do the hard work of building secondary markets even where governments have entered into trade agreements. For more on this see item Six below.

To compound that precarious dependence, Canada has increasingly become a place where building businesses have become almost impossible through regulatory friction and tax burden. The fact that the Liberal Government has already softly sent up trial balloons through friendly media about the acceptability of a return of a high-income capital gains tax and a home equity tax has sent a shock through the already skittish entrepreneurial class. Yes, that means taxing the value of your home and taxing even more of your income. For those who think well that’s not me – no, if you make more than $100,000 and own your home that is you … and what difference should it make anyway if it is not you – it’s the principle and the damage caused of policies directed specifically at those who work and save. This may shock some used to governments sending them cheques before elections, but a good number of Canadians believe that culturally, morally, and ethically, those who work hard and risk their own money and save are entitled to their rewards and those who do not invest and save should not be rewarded for it. Producers will be their brother’s keeper but only to a point, and only if that brother understands that the help is temporary until they get back to work. Canada’s predilection to tax and spend on wants rather than needs, while punishing the industrious, must stop or else those who work will stop working themselves. Peter will simply refuse to further subsidize Paul.

Put another way, why should any person try to get ahead, pull extra shifts at the mill, or work long hours at their startup without pay, drive an eight year old truck, and drink the beer on sale if their house and savings gets taxed while the neighbour working in the public sector with pension and benefits or on social benefits drinks Stella and never misses their trip to Florida and looks forward to a pension and income supplement? For more on this see item Nine below.

So, leave the West aside for a moment, and pay attention to the fact that the small snowball of disgruntled capitalists departing Canada has picked up speed as it has rolled down hill picking up more converts with it. The private sector is simply not prepared to continue to fund wealth redistribution schemes they do not agree with. As a result, business is up at law and accounting firms as the people who create the jobs, pay the bills, and innovate, leave for less intrusive places in the Caribbean, Portugal, and Texas among the favourites. This is not posturing this is real or as we were told in the military – this is not a drill.

A note on the financial, legal, and regulatory sectors who are of the view that they are part of the productive class. To the extent that we (including myself here) enable productive industries to build businesses that produce goods and services through financing, deals, advice or even litigation this is true. However, we must also admit that the sheer amount of often unnecessary government regulatory and tax burden creates entire industries of consultants, bankers, and professionals who feed off the burden that is itself counterproductive. This actually decreases productive value rather than increasing it. Moreover, the entrenchment of oligopolies in the telecom, media, banking, and financial sectors impairs healthy competition, decreases productive value and ability to compete in the global marketplace, while increasing costs to the domestic consumer. Each of us must self-reflect and consider whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem.

Sixth, Canadians must acknowledge that global markets are harsh places. China wins by burning coal, enslaving populations, and producing things we consume at prices we cannot match due to state subsidization. We cannot compete in a “free market” that is not free, particularly if we keep our environmental, health and safety and human rights laws in place. We can however compete in a “Free Markets for Free Peoples” but we need to do the work to actually make existing trade agreements generate trade. This effort must start at home with the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers. Overseas, businesses must get Canadian goods and services into the hands of friendly nations who will pay for them, while we buy the goods that they are better at producing. Two contrasting examples will need to suffice. There is a fascinating book by Andrea Mandel-Campbell entitled Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson, that explores why Molson’s and Labatt’s, once global leaders in brewing, failed to expand internationally, and were eventually taken over themselves. In short, Canadians have failed historically to keep their elbows up when competing in international markets. Conversely, Prime Minister Carney’s company Brookfield, formerly Brascan, is a stunning example of how Canadians can play very hard in international markets, pretty much akin to Bobby Clarke thinking nothing of breaking Russian ankles. There are several good books on Brookfield / Brascan, including The Brass Ring setting out their aggressive business methods. Another story, of less elbows up but still hard working and hard dealing from the maritime business leaders is Gordon Pitts’, The Codfathers. These are all essential reads – read them.

For the argument that our Foreign Service should be focused on expanding trade, not birth control, see section Ten below.

Seventh, Canadians must understand that we cannot reshore all of the industrialization that left for nations who can produce those goods and services cheaper. David Ricardo’s comparative advantage and Adam Smith’s needle makers cannot to be ignored. Just as Canada is not going to have vast avocado, coffee, and almond farms, there are labour and production costs and constraints that prevent domestic industry competing with foreign competitors who have natural or commercial advantages. Canada can however invest in better technologies to make our workers more productive and more efficient so as to regain the cost advantage. Canadian investment in our private sector working class is abysmal and it shows in our equally abysmal per capita GDP numbers. The exception is of course ironically the much-maligned oil and gas industries, where Canada is on the leading edge of employee investment and innovation.

In addition, Canada can and must also remove interprovincial trade barriers and rip out the heart of the regulatory state to allow projects to be built. Judges and interest groups who are paid for by the taxpayer cannot be left to determine how the economy works if the taxpayers vote otherwise. Conversely, even the most idealist neocons and neoliberal globalists must accept that some industries are simply too strategic for cost and comparative advantage to be an impediment. We simply cannot be dependent upon other nations for computer chips, semi-conductors, and steel. How would have the Second World War worked out had we offshored all vehicle manufacturing to Germany in the 1930’s simply because they were more cost efficient? Do you think Canada would have been able to produce trucks, tanks, ships and bombers without a domestic industry to begin with?

Together with domestic infrastructure projects, Prime Minister Carney will need to adopt an industrial strategy that ensures sufficient domestic production of strategic goods and services so that Canada is not caught without vaccines, computer chips, or the ability to outfit its own military. In contrast, Prime Minister Carney will finally have to grapple with the sacred cow of supply management and determine whether it is truly strategic or a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. Strangely, while dairy and poultry are kept sacrosanct, beef and other industries face foreign competition. Is it time for what is good for the goose also to become good for the gander?

Eighth, we must acknowledge that Canada has been a freeloader on defence and not only has that ticked off President Trump but it has meant that Canada has forgone most of the industrial and citizenship benefits that come from sustaining a viable military as well as the credibility to claim an independent voice in foreign affairs.

Canada’s procurement system is rightly ridiculed for political interference, pork barrelling, and for the delays in getting troops the equipment they need. At the same time, the military inevitably tinkers with every design and refuses to buy proven equipment off the shelf. It takes years for equipment to be obtained, and meanwhile soldiers, sailors, and aircrew live in substandard housing, buy their own food overseas, have sleeping bags that won’t work in the arctic and lack helmets and standard issue ammunition. Ships cannot go to see and most of the vehicle fleet does not run, or if it does run, it is because of binder twine and gun tape. To compound matters, the military has become a bureaucracy in uniform, is top heavy, and has let itself be used as social experiment rather than the war making force it is supposed to be. This is a far cry from the Second World War nation that possessed the world’s third largest Navy and fourth largest Airforce and the only Army that fought between the British and Americans throughout. At the same time, Canada became an industrial power becoming the ally’s largest supplier of trucks, while building ships, airplanes, and keeping the North Atlantic open to keep Britain in the war.

Together with a national industrial policy, the military needs a complete reset focusing on lean expeditionary forces to be deployed abroad modeled on the aforementioned Marines and a domestic defence force focused on control of Canada’s air and ocean space through overwhelming use of advanced technologies. This may upset my Regimental brothers and sisters but Canada does not have enough people, and modern warfare is too multidimensional, to have separate services and bloated bureaucracies. Two streamlined multi-skilled forces built to serve overseas and defensive postures are required. Forget Beavers as a national symbol, think instead about throwing a Wolverine ashore when acting globally and a tech savvy Porcupine at home. This will require a complete rethink of Canadian Armed Force structure and extensive capital investment in missiles, ships, aircraft, drones, much of which can be produced either in Canada or with our free market partners in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, Britain and yes, even the United States. The Northwest passage should be a Canadian creek not a global conflict zone. To possess it is to own it and to possess it Canada needs to control it. Mother Nature isn’t doing that for us anymore.

At the same time, service in the military must be incentivized as a path to civilian success rather than as a refuge in a poor economy, or worse, a social experiment. Wide ranging educational and training programs should be provided such that young Canadians are paid to learn trades and skills while learning to defend the nation. Civilian university and college programs should be repurposed to replace their dependency on foreign students to building citizens of the future. Military veterans will then re-enter the work force prepared for the jobs that Canada needs to build rather than having to litigate the government for benefits that encourage dependency. While conscription has always been divisive in Canada’s history, encouraging voluntary enlistment through skills building will not only make better Canadian citizens but a better Canada. Recruitment and Retention problems will disappear with the proper incentives and management.

Yes, unlike the other items listed here, this will require greater spending on the public sector but it will be true Keynesian spending that primes the pump of the private economy while obtaining a national benefit in the form of insurance. A strong Canadian defence keeps neighbours on their own side of the fence and gives Canada a credible voice globally.

Ninth, Canadians must once again understand that the “public sector” is not just Ottawa but includes all individuals, groups, and entities that receive their fundings from taxpayer funds. It is not just government paycheques, including Federal, Provincial, Municipalities, the Canadian Forces, Universities, Hospitals etc… that need to be considered but also all individuals and entities that depend on the government rather than the market for sustenance. Yes, this includes Canadians receiving old age and disability pensions, but it also includes, refugees, organizations promoting causes, educational institutions, mainstream media, and foreign groups and nations who receive funding from the Canadian government without first paying in. In each and every one of those scenarios, taxes are taken from productive Canadians in the work force (private and public) and transferred to people and groups who are not currently or perhaps have never added economic value. This is important to understand because every producer of value in the private sector is being increasingly asked to subsidize multiple non-value producing consumers of benefits and entitlements. Given Canada’s current economic trajectory and aging population this is not sustainable. To compound matters, often the government has been spending taxpayer money on things the taxpayers have no direct say in. To make matters even worse, Governments have been borrowing money to spend on these items which means our children will be taxed to pay the interest upon decisions made today. That has to change or soon none of the worker bees will stick around to make the honey.

This economic analysis becomes more complicated when you separate the private sector which creates new goods and services (value) from the public civil service which recirculates existing value. Domestically, Canada’s economy is disproportionately weighed to those who do not actually produce goods and services to sell in the private sector but rather are supposed to provide essential services to those private sector workers. Canada’s public service is vastly larger than other nations on a per capita basis. Yes, recipients of government pay cheques actually work but that work doesn’t actually create a new value but rather is the recirculation of value from pre-existing tax revenues from the private sector. It’s not new money but rather recycled money, which is not as good for the economy.

Moreover, public sector workers often benefit from union job protection and indexed pension and benefits that are no longer available in the private sector thus creating a disincentive for private sector work, particularly in government towns like Ottawa. Moreover, because the public sector is not tied to market calculations of supply and demand for labour, public sector payments are inflationary as a rule. Public servants do often (but not always) contribute and some, perform dangerous and essential work policing our streets, defending our borders, and staffing our hospitals and should be thanked for it. However, from an economic perspective, aside from recirculating money in the domestic consumer economy, they do not add to the overall wealth of the nation, albeit they may protect existing value by reducing crime and injury, but only if they do in fact prevent car thefts, assaults, and fentanyl, which is notoriously not the case at present.

In addition, to those who work for government there are whole classes of recipients of public sector funding who provide no benefit at all. All levels of government provide billions of dollars each year to people who do not work for various reasons. Rarely, if ever are these programs re-evaluated and whole sectors of the nation have become dependent upon government cheques without even providing a day’s work. As a teenager, I watched the mine in Ontario that was to be my future close because of a strike that simply made it unviable. Iron ore could be produced other places cheaper and without constant labour unrest. Some people stayed in a rusted-out town that became like a set from a Taylor Sheridan show and received government assistance. Others there, and across the Maritimes, and the pulp mills of Northern Ontario and Quebec picked up and moved to Fort Mac or they still fly in and fly out. I went into the army to pay my way, but the lesson there is that when economies fail, you move to where there is work. Governments cannot discourage economic activity by paying people to stay put or by funding arts or advocacy groups to push money into the local economy. Now ask yourself, why should the sixty-year-old pipefitter keep flying to Fort Mac if their neighbour never leaves his chair at Tim Hortons?

Included in this could be added the increasing payments made for disability and old age. I will soon qualify on both accounts but recoil at the thought someone else should support me if I haven’t provided for my own retirement. To make matters worse, these benefits are “means-tested” which penalizes those who save for their retirement and rewards those who lived beyond their means only to cross the finish line unprepared. These benefits are also clawed back to the extent the person continues to work which is a perverse disincentive to productive values. Certainly, as a modern economy we have learned our lessons from the Great Depression and we need to continue to provide compassionate benefits for those who, through no fault of their own cannot provide for themselves, but in a system where Peter is asked to pay for Paul, Paul must be held accountable and not discouraged to work and save. Historians will tell you that the benefit payments of the Great Depression were not simply to put food on the table but, through massive infrastructure projects, intended to keep people working for the good of their own moral existence.

The most egregious of these public sector payments are those made to migrants and refugees, which in some cases are greater than payments made to pensioners who have lived in Canada their entire lives or veterans who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for Canada. Uncontrolled immigration is a problem in and of itself but providing taxpayer money to those not contributing to the economy makes no sense at all. Make no mistake, Canada is a nation of immigrant “settlers” and needs ambitious and skilled immigrants to grow the economy but in the past, they received nothing but the freedom to pursue their own ambitions and industry. They were also required to assimilate; this is no longer the case and thus money from the productive is transferred to the non-productive without inculcating a culture that prioritizes integrity, industry, thrift and tolerance as values. Canada’s immigration system needs to be reset to the system that existed 10 years ago, which was admired around the world.

In addition, to these categories of public spending (public sector salaries, pensions, and refugee payments) must be added the billions upon billions of dollars Canada loans and donates abroad for various causes. Space here prevents discussion of the details but consider this – Canada is in debt and deficit meaning that it is not bringing in enough to pay its bills. What sensible person, who cannot make their own mortgage payments, takes a loan to put a roof on the neighbour’s house? That is exactly what Canada does when it gives money it does not have to another nation or group of people. Charity begins at home and importantly, you have to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others. Spending abroad must be curtailed until the books are balanced at home, and even then, spending abroad must show a return on investment for Canadian taxpayers.

The failure to rationalize and prioritize scarce public funds is exemplified by the fact that the Foreign Service ended language training for our Diplomats abroad while at the same time lavishing billions on foreign green energy initiatives and gender and LGBTQ programs. It is far more important that our Diplomats, whose job it is to advance Canadian interests, including trade abroad, be able to speak the language of the country they are posted to, than for Canada to impose its values on the cultural decisions of other nations. Moreover, the failure to provide language training for our diplomats means that our diplomatic corps is dependent on native born speakers, which builds in a security risk for our missions abroad.

Again, defence spending abroad is the notable exception because it is in reality an insurance policy. Aiding allies is all about stopping wars abroad from migrating to our shores and interfering with our trade routes. To put it bluntly, better to fight in the Ukraine than in Whitehorse.

Again, people with progressive ideologies are welcome to donate their own money to charities working overseas to those ends but do not ask the rest of the country to subsidize your ideology. The conservative ideologies donate privately, largely through churches and the progressive should do the same. Exportation of ideology is not a collective effort and taxpayers’ dollars should go to the benefit of the taxpayers not the ideological whim of the government.

In addition to the purely economic cost of this public sector spending, the growth in numbers of those receiving their daily bread from the government means that there is a built-in and growing voter base for those who seek to make government even bigger, and seemingly believe money grows on trees or can be printed at whim. Any economist, including Prime Minister Carney, knows that printing money creates inflation and that bond markets will demand greater interest payments to loan the nation money, and could stop altogether. Printing money leads to dangerous results as evidenced by the Weimer Republic that led to the rise of the Nazis, the collapse of Argentina, and the collapse of oil rich Venezuela. This clear conflict of interest between those voting themselves more of other people’s money and prudent fiscal stewardship is not sustainable. There are simply not enough builders and young people left to pay for the increasing entitlements of a bloated state. It will doubtlessly be difficult to curtail universal suffrage and thus maximum effort must be taken to get voters out of the public pork barrel.

It is rumoured that Prime Minister Carney intends to overhaul the public service but he must do more than that. He must revisit all of the payments made from tax coffers to the public sector as defined above and trim all but the essential so that the productive classes do not feel taken advantage of. Where spending does need to happen, it needs to follow classical Keynesian methods of priming the market through infrastructure construction rather than monetary policy. Moreover, the ratio between private and public sector must change because for an economy to function there must be more taxpayers than tax-takers and right now Canada is headed in the other direction. This does not mean cutting the public service without thought but it does mean making the public service more efficient and cutting the rest of the public sector spend for people who are non-productive and non-Canadian.

Last, this ridiculous buying of votes with cheques to voters during election cycles must stop. This blatant pork barrelling is simply the worst manifestation of modern monetary theory and is the complete opposite of classical Keynesianism.

Tenth, we must tie foreign policy to domestic production and think globally without becoming globalists. No more cash for terrorists and no more cash for emerging economies to tool up and compete with us. If people are starving provide Canadian agricultural products to feed them. If foreign nations need critical medicines that they can’t afford then Canada must produce them and then donate them. If an island nation is hit by a tsunami, then deploy one of our new helicopter carriers with Canadian engineers to help them rebuild and maintain law and order. I make this point because beyond needing amphibious capacity for warfighting, the Canadian Forces cannot adequately respond to humanitarian disasters because it needs functioning ports and airstrips to get on the ground to help. And never again should Canada deprive needy peoples of medicines from a global vaccine reserve because we have let our domestic industry atrophy and or have partnered with China. How quickly we have forgotten all the failures of COVID.

Canada is awash in resources but unlike many nations, we have no strategic reserves of oil, gas, potash, canola, grain, gold etc… If governments want to give cheques away, then they should be using surplus cash in good times to buy critical Canadian resources in years where the yields are good but the prices are low and stockpile for cold winters of the future. Just as OPEC plays with supply to maintain prices, Canada should maintain its own stash with which to ride out poor markets, provide foreign aid, or make economic war. If China wants to temporarily boycott Canadian Canola, buy it up ourselves – they will come crawling back. It should not be missed that had Canada been able to flood the global market with oil, gas, wheat and corn in the last decade that Russia would have not been able to hold the European’s hostage or fund its war against Ukraine.

Conclusion

These essays discussed regional differences, demographic differences and ideological differences. They highlighted the destructive Liberal policies of the last decade and pointed out that Prime Minister Carney’s own writings about resetting the world to net 0 and using government power to restructure society should be taken seriously and that he should not be given the opportunity to implement his utopian vision. He is the Prime Minister but he made promises to win the election and he must be held to them.

Canada is an economic bargain amongst diverse peoples built on foundations of British liberal capitalism which holds as values, individual integrity, industry, and thrift. Renewing that bargain and reversing the slide towards the productive few increasingly supporting the entitlements of the many is essential if Canada is to remain truly, north, strong and free. Diversity means accepting the differences across this vast land not imposing urban views on the rural rest.